UC Irvine

Genetic counseling chatbots have recently been developed, with several currently in use. This raises two important questions: if genetic counselors are interested in using chatbots in their practices, and what applications and information genetic counselors want included in these chatbots. To date, these questions have not been explored, and there has been no published research on genetic counselors’ opinions on the usage of chatbots. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the current perspectives of genetic counselors and genetic counseling graduate students regarding the use of chatbots in the genetic counseling field. A survey was developed to explore genetic counselors’ and genetic counseling graduate students’ familiarity with, usage of, and opinions regarding chatbots, both in general and specifically in the genetic counseling field. This includes their thoughts on what information genetic counseling chatbots should provide and potential barriers to their use. It was hypothesized that counselors and students who are younger, see a larger number of patients per week, use alternative counseling methods, and are already familiar with chatbots in general will be more interested in offering a genetic counseling chatbot. While overall, participants were only slightly interested in offering a chatbot to their patients, the variables that predicted greater interest were different than those hypothesized. The data showed that counselors who work in a laboratory or non-patient-facing setting and do not have administrative and/or support staff are more interested. In addition, both counselors and students who are familiar with genetic counseling chatbots and would consider using a chatbot for their personal health are more interested. Participants’ main concern was that counselors would be unable to assess whether patients understood the information included in the chatbot. While participants’ preferences for what is included in a genetic counseling chatbot is in line with what is currently being offered, the results of this thesis still offer some important insights into the future development and refinement of genetic counseling chatbots.